Should role-play within the Game Rules be permitted?

[jamescfm]

I have personally always held the view that role-play that is within the Game Rules should be permitted. I have been told that this is not a widely held view. I would like to hear what other people think.

[hyraemous]

A bit restrictive, isn't it? Your poll is essentially saying "ban roleplay Moderation doesn't like" or "ban roleplay I don't like" - I urgently need clarification on what you mean by this poll. I should also add that rules can be interpreted many ways by many different people and Moderation usually exists to set up a consistent interpretation of said rules.

[jamescfm]

Here is the example which prompted me to ask the question.

Imagine three players went to Alduria, Kanjor and Rildanor and they role-played having American military equipment. The role-play is being ignored by the wider community, i.e. no other player except the three has interacted with it. The three players are doing this because they recognise the real-life power of the American military. In this example, should Moderation prevent the role-play?

My answer is "no". Moderation, the Role-Play Committee and other long-term players should try and advise the players on good role-play practice but I do not think that Moderation should overrule the role-play or ban the players.

[hyraemous]

Here is the example which prompted me to ask the question.

Imagine three players went to Alduria, Kanjor and Rildanor and they role-played having American military equipment. The role-play is being ignored by the wider community, i.e. no other player except the three has interacted with it. The three players are doing this because they recognise the real-life power of the American military. In this example, should Moderation prevent the role-play?

My answer is "no". Moderation, the Role-Play Committee and other long-term players should try and advise the players on good role-play practice but I do not think that Moderation should overrule the role-play or ban the players.

I can agree with the latter point then. Trying and restrict roleplay by Moderation should only be done once it breaks the rules at some point - even then there should be the player's history taken into account. If they want to roleplay it and it doesn't break the rules of the game then it should be allowed even if it is ignored, for if we were to be harsh with moderating roleplay than it'll dwindle the small community we have as we're essentially discouraging what could be potentially a good and proper roleplay environment.

I should admit that it is a bit hard to figure out if a Moderator is trying to give advice as a player who is a veteran/someone trying to help, or whether or not they're a Moderator trying to give advice - though I think that's more a personal thing that may be subjective.

[jamescfm]

I agree completely. Moderation, the Role-Play Committee and other players should play a role in helping new players to improve their role-play by providing advice, guidelines and examples of good practice. Personally though, I think it is wrong for Moderation to prevent or ban role-play because they do not think it is "realistic".

[GreekIdiot]

Rest assured, Moderation will not be banning roleplay that adheres to the Game Rules for the sake of it, nor on grounds of realism/unrealism. It is the Moderation's responsibility to make sure that players and roleplay are respected in equal measure, both from those conducting and those spectating.

I'd like to further add that constructive feedback and criticism will always be welcome from players to Moderation.

[Doc]

There is always, and always has been a tension about current RP respecting existing RP.

I have always argued that it should, when I am attempting to make a point about new players either remaining ignorant about canon RP within a country itself, or just outright violating it, often supported by others. I’ve been told numerous times that it is unreasonable for me to complain about players not at least trying to catch up on canon RP, even recent canon RP. That I just complain too much and I should instead just let people have fun because “sometimes things change.” To me that suggests that ALL RP which is within game rules already is allowed, and that established RP was never the governing limit on RP: the rules are the only limit on RP. I’ve literally commented on this for like a decade.

When attempting to develop a new piece of military gear, that RP, which was several posts long, was squashed because it was for a fairly common design but it was decided that Kalistan shouldn’t have that because another country apparently already had a monopoly on that design. When I objected to the squashing of the RP, an RP which was fully within the game rules, I was told I wasn’t “respecting established RP” on military equipment. I could do whatever I wanted, of course, but if that thing happened to be the thing that someone else didn’t want me to do, then nobody should then ever take my critique of not paying attention to actual RPd history seriously because here I was being a hypocrite by developing a system that this player thought that only they should be able to control, because it was modern and they developed all modern systems themselves. Through “extensive RP”.

So. I stuck to the record industry. It’s the one thing that people don’t seem to care much about in this game but at least my RPs don’t get squashed.

I just wish people would pick one. Either we respect established RP or we shut the fuck up when I complain that people are ignoring established RP. If all RP under the rules are allowed, then what’s the point of doing RP that will just be ignored completely within two months because people who are new to your country can’t be bothered to even look at the damn archive? And if we are going to hold established RP which has been reacted to and acknowledged as canon, then the rules ought to say that so we can call foul when people ignore the canon and just do their own thing.

I know people don’t give a damn about my opinion, but this debate is older than some people who play PT, and it’s never been resolved to date.